The ritual is repeated. Activity in the courts intensifies with testimonies and new evidence, investigators move forward and former President Donald Trump prepares the ground, warning that indicting him would be an injustice arising from “political interference” to prevent him from returning to the White House. It’s the same smell as the indictment in late March, only this time it’s about a potentially more serious case: the secret papers the former president illegally kept at Mar-A-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida mansion .
Procedurally, the final relevant step is that prosecutors have notified Trump’s attorneys that the former president is under investigation into the handling of confidential documents he took from the White House and kept at his mansion.
There was little doubt that Trump was under investigation after the FBI showed up at his home with a search warrant in August last year, a special prosecutor, Jack Smith, was appointed to take on the case, and all other procedural steps were completed. But the new report is an indication that the prosecutor’s office is very likely to bring charges against the former president and that the investigation will soon be completed. In addition, the case is known to be reviewed by two grand juries, one in Washington and one in Miami.
On Monday, Trump’s attorneys met with the special counsel at the Justice Department for nearly two hours. The lawyers were photographed entering and exiting but declined to provide details of the meeting. However, a message from Trump on his social network already gave a hint: “How is it possible that the DOJ [Departamento de Justicia] Accuse me of not doing anything wrong when no other President has been accused (…) Only Trump. Greatest witch hunt ever!” he wrote in a message on his social network Truth, all in capital letters, in which he leveled allegations at Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
This Wednesday, Trump returned with two more messages on the allegation. “Wow, this is the biggest, most reckless case of election interference in the history of our country,” begins the first, adding, “You’re starting all the bogus investigations into me in the middle of my campaign, something that…” It’s unknown and shouldn’t be happening.” And then he says that the Justice Department, the FBI, and prosecutors in New York and Atlanta, “ALL FASCISTS!”
Another news came after John Solomon, a journalist close to Trump who is acting as his representative, said the indictment was imminent and Trump had already been notified. He denied it: “Nobody told me I would be charged, and I shouldn’t be, because I did NOTHING wrong, but I’ve assumed for years that I was a target of the DOJ and instrumentalized by the FBI.” ‘ he wrote said.
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The former president’s allegation would be a qualitative leap in a case that led to the search of his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Fla. From the contents of the search warrant, it was already apparent at the time that the former president was being investigated for possible crimes of obstruction of justice, concealment, removal or intentional mutilation of public documents, as well as violations of the Espionage Act, apparently because of the intentional retention of security documents. national security. These are criminal offenses that can be punished with fines or imprisonment.
FBI agents searching Trump’s mansion found thousands of documents the former president illegally kept there, including hundreds classified with varying degrees of classification. The former President had failed to meet the requirements for their surrender, which justified the search.
More information about the investigation has emerged in recent weeks. The Washington Post revealed that just a day before the Justice Department visited the former president’s residence, two Trump associates transported boxes of paper to Mar-a-Lago with requests to pick up classified documents the special prosecutor had found along with other evidence collected can support the criminal prosecution of obstruction of justice.
Federal prosecutors also received a recording of a meeting in the summer of 2021 at which former President Donald Trump admitted to holding a secret Pentagon document about a possible attack on Iran, according to a report published by CNN. The recording is incriminating evidence against Donald Trump, who has at times claimed that he released all of the documents the Federal Investigation Agency (FBI) found during a search of his Mar-A-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Fla have.
One of Trump’s usual tactics is to delay and hamper investigations through continued court appeals. Thanks to one of these sources, a Florida federal judge, Aileen M. Cannon, who was appointed by Trump himself shortly before his dismissal, ordered the Justice Department and the FBI to stop their investigative work with all the documents found in the registry, after which a special expert reviewed them.
The aim was to determine whether they compromised attorney-client privilege (which protects professional secrecy in an individual’s relationships with his or her attorneys) or executive privilege (allowing executive power to withhold information about ongoing proceedings from another person). (e.g. Legislative or Judicial Branch) even if Trump is no longer in public office.
However, a court overturned the judge’s decision. First, last September, it temporarily suspended investigations into classified documents seized by the FBI in the Mar-a-Lago raid in early August. Then he ruled the matter in a judgment that put Judge Cannon in a very bad position: “The law is clear. We cannot create a rule that would allow a search warrant subject to block a government investigation after the search warrant has been executed. Nor can we make a rule that only allows former presidents to do this,” he said at the end of his 21-page decision.
In addition, the court noted that the judge had no jurisdiction to issue her order, citing the extraordinary fact that a search was being conducted at the home of a former President. For this, the judges dedicate a corrective to him: “It is certainly extraordinary that a court order is executed in the residence of a former president, but not in a way that impairs our legal analysis or otherwise gives the judiciary permission to intervene.” an ongoing investigation,” said the three judges, two of whom were also appointed by Trump himself. “Creating a specific exception here would challenge our nation’s founding principle that our law applies to all, regardless of number, wealth or rank,” they add.
While the investigation into Trump continued, the Justice Department dropped investigations into classified documents illegally brought to his home after Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president, left office. In a letter dated June 1, prosecutors informed Pence that the investigation was complete and that no charges would be filed.
At the end of January, it was announced that Trump’s former vice president’s assistants had discovered a dozen documents with non-disclosure notices at his home in Indiana. Pence joined Trump himself and current President Joe Biden in also unlawfully taking confidential documents into their homes. In the Biden case, as in the Trump case, the Justice Department appointed an Attorney General to handle the investigation.
In Pence’s case, it was “a small number of classified documents that were accidentally boxed and transported to the former Vice President’s private home at the end of his last term,” Pence’s attorney wrote in a dated letter to the National Archives that included Institution that must protect the documents and records when Presidents and Vice Presidents leave office.
Trump, who was convicted of sex abuse in a civil trial, has other legal fronts open. A New York judge has scheduled the case for March 25 to face 34 falsehood charges stemming from three campaign payments to cover up scandals (including an extramarital affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels). of the USA results in presidential elections 2016.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is investigating whether he illegally interfered in Georgia’s 2020 election, said she plans to announce in the coming months whether she will face charges. Willis has hinted the possible charges will arrive in August. In a letter to the chief judge of the district high court, Ural Glanville, he indicated that he intended many of his staff to work remotely most days during the first three weeks of August, urging the judges to have no in-person hearings during that time and hearings to be scheduled part of this time for security reasons.
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